Intense global competition, emerging technology, incredible reservoirs of marketing and customer data, less loyal but more sophisticated customers demanding personalized, permission-based attention and service, and a growing corporate emphasis on customer relationship management (CRM) have given organizations the imperative to do marketing faster, cheaper, and better. FIGS. 13A-B show a comparison between how marketing campaigns have been developed and launched in the past (and in fact how it is done sometimes today), versus ideally how the process would work with the right tools. The top half of FIGS. 13A-B shows a 26-week process, and as shown there, for many companies even today, moving from marketing idea to campaign execution is a long, laborious series of steps. Collaboration is hindered by functional silos. Data are gathered in batch from external departments and outside agencies. By the time the campaign is out the door, the data have aged, leaving opportunity to more quickly moving competitors. By way of comparison, the bottom half of FIGS. 13A-B shows a 26-hour process. In the beginning, gathered in a quality circle, the cross-functional marketing team views analysis of real-time data, brainstorms ideas, and assigns responsibilities. Then, with integrated tools and data at their fingertips, they are able to move quickly, employing technology to integrate customer data, content, and fulfillment to deliver the marketing campaign, and getting it right the first time. While this is the goal of a marketing organizations, existing tools are falling short in enabling the marketing organization to reach these goals.
There are a wide variety of marketing campaigns that a marketing organization may launch. The type of marketing activities that are most effective differ from industry to industry. Some marketing campaigns have the goal of developing name-recognition, while others are focused on specific potential or existing customers. By way of example, marketing campaigns include general advertising in print media (newspapers and magazines, for example), on the air (radio and television), or on the Internet. Other marketing campaigns involve direct contact with potential or existing customers, by telephone, traditional mail or e-mail.
Many different computer software applications have been developed to assist in various aspects of the marketing process. Generally, the software applications have been designed to handle discrete functions in the process. For example, there are software applications for campaign management, campaign optimization, analytical modeling, analysis and reporting, to name some of the more important functions. Also, there are software applications to handle workflow, which typically are not designed specifically for a marketing organization but are sometimes used by marketing organizations.
Historically, the evolution of marketing organizations has been a tale of automation of the discrete marketing functions, with little integration of the functions. The current effort is to integrate the many “siloed” software applications. In some cases, specific software vendors have begun to offer software tools that include more than one of the discrete marketing functions mentioned above. For example, the software vendor E.piphany has recently combined its campaign management software with software that does marketing analysis and reporting. In some cases, software vendors are aligning or merging to combine their collective software capabilities, and through that process integration is occurring.
A problem with these integration efforts, from the perspective of the marketing organization, is the dependence on a single vendor (or aligned vendors). To achieve integration, many marketing organizations may be faced with the prospect of abandoning a software application in which there has already been a significant up-front capital investment in terms of buying the software and training employees to use it. Further, no software vendor (or alliance of vendors) has been successful in fully integrating the functions of a marketing organization, and in integrating customer feedback from on-going marketing campaigns into the process.
The marketing software applications discussed above are too often designed only for low-level functionaries. Within a marketing organization, employees serve different roles, and one software application does not fit all. For example, a marketing executive for the organization may be responsible for the marketing of many different products and services. A marketing manager, or brand manager, is responsible for all aspects of the marketing efforts for one or more specific products or services. A person responsible for data analytics (that is, a data analyst) analyzes marketing data to determine whether a proposed marketing campaign will be successful, and uses modeling tools and data from third-party sources to perform the job.
The concept of a “portal” is known in the context of the internet. Internet portals provide a user with a portal page that serves as a navigational aid to other internet sites. Also, companies like America Online (AOL) and Yahoo, who offer a general portal page to users who access the company's website, also allow individual users to create a customized portal page, specifying the information to appear on the customized portal page (for example, stock quotes, sporting event scores, and local weather reports), as well as links to specified websites. Some companies and organizations have developed their own “intranet” websites with access limited to employees and other authorized users. The “intranet” website may have information and website links that are helpful to the users.